Dog Lovers Book Club - September 2017

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Australian Dog Lover
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Whether you love teaching your dog new tricks, enjoy a good murder mystery novel, feel reflective or are looking for some fun books for the younger dog lovers, we have another great selection for you this Spring!

This is an international bestseller with over a half-million copies sold worldwide!

This beautifully designed book features step-by-step instructions with easy to follow colour photos of each step. Each trick is rated with a difficulty rating and pre-requisites to get you started quickly. Tips and trouble-shooting boxes cover common problems, while "build-on" ideas suggest more complicated tricks which build on each new skill.

Tricks range from simple ones like Sit, Shake Hands, Fetch, and Roll Over, to extraordinary ones like Tidy Up Your Toys into the Toybox, and Get a Soda from the Fridge.

Millions of people have found success with Kyra Sundance's step-by-step techniques and you can too. Trick training will help you bond with your dog and integrate him into your family. Tricks keep him mentally and physically challenged and help to establish paths of communication between you. Many tricks build skills used in dog sports, dog dancing, and dog therapy work. 101 Dog Tricks will inspire you to do more with your dog!

A life shared with pets brings many emotions. We feel love for our companions, certainly, and happiness at the thought that we’re providing them with a safe, healthy life. But there’s another emotion, less often acknowledged, that can be nearly as powerful: guilt. When we see our cats gazing wistfully out the window, or watch a goldfish swim lazy circles in a bowl, we can’t help but wonder: are we doing the right thing, keeping these independent beings locked up, subject to our control? Is keeping pets actually good for the pets themselves?

That’s the question that animates Jessica Pierce’s powerful Run, Spot, Run. A lover of pets herself, Pierce understands the joys that pets bring us. But she also refuses to deny the ambiguous ethics at the heart of the relationship, and through a mix of personal stories, philosophical reflections, and scientifically informed analyses of animal behavior and natural history, she puts pet-keeping to the test. Is it ethical to keep pets at all? Are some species more suited to the relationship than others? Are there species one should never attempt to own? And are there ways that we can improve our pets’ lives, so that we can be confident that we are giving them as much as they give us?

Deeply empathetic, yet rigorous and unflinching in her thinking, Pierce has written a book that is sure to help any pet owner, unsettling assumptions but also giving them the knowledge to build deeper, better relationships with the animals with whom they’ve chosen to share their lives.

Hardcover, 256 pages Publisher: The University of Chicago Press, 6th May 2016

Kay Powell wants to find that break-out client who will become a star. And she thinks she's found him. His name is Bruno, and he has to be walked three times a day.

Kay is the "Agent to the Paws", representing showbiz clients who aren't exactly people, in fact: they're dogs! Bruno's humans, Trent and Louise, are pains in the you-know-what, and Les McMaster, the famous director mounting a revival of Annie, might not hire Bruno just because he can't stand them.

This becomes less of an issue when Trent is discovered face down in Bruno's water dish, with a kitchen knife in his back. Kay's perfectly fine to let the NYPD handle the murder, but when the whole plot seems to center on Bruno, her protective instincts come into play. You can kill any people you want, but you'd better leave Kay's clients alone!

THUNDER DOGThe True Story of a Blind Man, His Guide Dog, and the Triumph of Trustby Michael Hingson, Susy Flory

A blind man and his guide dog show the power of trust and courage in the midst of devastating terror.

It was 12:30 a.m.on 9/11 and Roselle whimpered at Michael's bedside. A thunderstorm was headed east, and she could sense the distant rumbles while her owners slept. As a trained guide dog, when she was on the clock nothing could faze her. But that morning, without her harness, she was free to be scared, and she nudged Michaels hand with her wet nose as it draped over the bedside toward the floor. She needed him to wake up.

With a busy day of meetings and an important presentation ahead, Michael slumped out of bed, headed to his home office, and started chipping away at his daunting workload. Roselle, shivering, took her normal spot at his feet and rode out the storm while he typed. By all indications it was going to be a normal day. A busy day, but normal nonetheless. Until they went into the office.

In Thunder Dog, follow Michael and his guide dog, Roselle, as their lives are changed forever by two explosions and 1,463 stairs. When the first plane struck Tower One, an enormous boom, frightening sounds, and muffled voices swept through Michaels office while shards of glass and burning scraps of paper fell outside the windows.

But in this harrowing story of trust and courage, discover how blindness and a bond between dog and man saved lives and brought hope during one of Americas darkest days.

Kirk Bergman and Duncan McBoo are pedigree police: the finest canine cops in all Muttropolis. And they're never short of work.

The Golden Bone of Alexandria has been stolen by malevolent mongrels and our doggy duo are the perfect pooches to take on the case... Criminals beware: Bergman and McBoo are on your tail!This is a comic-book style publication with almost thirty pictures per double page, all in clear bold colours on glossy paper and an attractive alternative to a typical story book. This fast-paced New York style police crime drama would appeal to children aged 9-12.

LUCY AND THE ROCKET DOG by Will Buckingham, illustrated by Monica Arnaldo

The unforgettable story of the bond between a budding scientist and her beloved dog.

Lucy loves space. She loves to gaze up at the stars and bask in space’s bigness and its here, there, and everywhereness. She loves it so much that she built a rocket ship in her backyard, hoping that one day she can use it to explore space herself. The ship is just Prototype I, though, so it’s not ready to carry anyone into orbit yet. Or so she thinks.

Laika doesn’t give much thought to space—she is a dog, after all. The thing that Laika loves the most is Lucy. She loves Lucy so much that, one evening, she wanders into Prototype I looking for her—and is promptly launched into space.

While Laika takes off on an intergalactic adventure, Lucy begins a lifelong scientific quest to bring her dog home. Told from the two friends’ alternating perspectives and, in turns, heartbreaking and hilarious, this tale will win over anyone who has ever loved a pet, or who has looked at the stars and wondered just what might be going on in the here, there, and everywhereness.

Hardcover, 160 pages

Publisher: Random House USA Inc, 15th August 2017 For Ages: 8 - 12 years old

For nine-year-old Jehan, life in Pakistan is just as it should be. He attends school, plays cricket with his little brother and fetches water for his family. But when the monsoon unleashes a catastrophic flood, Jehan is swept away from his village and becomes trapped in a tree.

Jehan stays alive by rescuing things from the floodwater, but as the days pass with no sign of help, Jehan starts to despair. Will he ever see his family again?

Then Jehan rescues a dog and he is no longer alone. But why does the dog keep swimming away? Where is she going?

Eventually, Jehan must follow the lost dog into the floodwater. But will the dog’s quest lead them to safety? Or to more danger?

Sensitively told, this important story brings home the horrific reality of natural disasters on the lives of children, families and communities around the world, but celebrates need for hope, kindness and resilience that these situations inspire in their aftermath.

As a child, Catherine Pickles' home was filled with dogs, cats and every stray, broken or rescued animal in the village.

Now she is an experienced foster-carer of Lurchers and other Sighthounds. Initially a foster dog, from the second Worzel skidded through the door, Catherine knew that he would be her first "failed foster" - and Worzel Wooface was adopted permanently from Hounds First Sighthound Rescue.

Early puppy experiences mean that he can be anxious and nervous about new situations, and this book for children addresses the issues of introducing a potentially nervous rescue dog to young children. Worzel is a champion for rescue dogs and considers himself a Rescue Ambassador, promoting the joys and challenges of second-hand dogs. In 2016, he won a Heroes of Dog Fest award.

Hardcover, 32 pages Publisher: Veloce Publishing Ltd, 27th July 2017RRP: $20.99 from www.booktopia.com.auAustralian Dog Lover is a participant in the Booktopia affiliate advertising program, designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.booktopia.com.au